Giant Silkworms (Family Saturniidae)
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Maier, C.T.; Lemmon, C.R.; Fengler, J.M.; Schweitzer, D.F.; Reardon, R.C.; Caterpillars on the Foliage of Conifers in the Northeastern United States. Morgantown, WV. USDA Forest Service. Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. FHTET-2004-01. March 2004. 151 p.
Giant silkworms are large caterpillars, usually 4 to 10 cm long at maturity, that typically have branching hairs or spines mounted on tubercles, warts, or humps. Their heads are smooth and rounded, whereas in similar families the heads tend to be arched or to bear tubercles. In addition to the body outgrowths, saturniid caterpillars may have hairs elsewhere on the body. They have single pairs of fully developed prolegs on A3 to A6 and A10. Their crochets of two lengths are arranged linearly and parallel to the length of the body.
These caterpillars feed mainly on deciduous trees and shrubs, but a few are associated with conifers. Giant silkworms usually produce large pellets of frass that often give away their presence. Most spin dense, silken cocoons that can be used to identify the genus, if not the species; some change to pupae in the soil. This family includes several classroom favorites: the luna moth, Actias luna, the cecropia moth, Hyalophora cecropia, and the polyphemus moth, Antheraea polyphemus.
The adults, like those of lasiocampids, have greatly reduced mouthparts and do not feed. They are active during the day, at night, or at dawn or dusk. Like most moths, the males locate females by following the airborne trail of a sexual scent emitted by the female. The adults of the species described here are attracted to lights.
